I've been considering putting some Apistos into my 28 gallon tank, with a school of cardinal tetras. I know next to nothing about these fish, so I was hoping that someone could give me some info or advice on keeping them. I'm not even sure if I would be able to keep them in my tank with my water.

The tank is 28 gallons, 24" long, 19" deep. I'm still in the process of planting it, but I hope to have it moderatly-heavily planted soon. My water is very soft, ph of around 8.0 - sometimes a bit higher, a little lower if I'm lucky. I've been reading about putting peat in the filter to lower ph, so I'm going to try that soon.

Could I manage to keep them in this tank? Maybe if I was able to lower the ph? I would really like a school of cardinal tetras - are they compatible?? Will apistos uproot plants? If I decide to keep apistos, which types would be best to start with? Can I keep more than one species in the tank?

I'm not an expert on the individual types of apistos, but none will uproot plants. Peat will definitely help lower the pH but can be difficult to work with. Driftwood should also help lowering the pH. I would imagine that it would be possible to acclimate an apisto to a pH of 8.0 over a long period of time, but that's pretty high to introduce it to in the first place. I think cardinal tetras should be fine with apistos, though.

I would try different ways to lower the pH and if you can't, maybe think about a fish that can tolerate a wider pH range. Kribs come to mind.